


Friend/Fawn

by naasad



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Is An Okayish Dad, Fear Responses, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Jack and Janet Drake's A+ Parenting, Seizures, fear toxin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 22:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14757350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naasad/pseuds/naasad
Summary: When Tim doesn't freeze, fight, or run, Bruce doesn't know what to think.





	Friend/Fawn

**Author's Note:**

> So, basically, I learned about a new fear/trauma response and wanted to incorporate it into the Batfam, and of course, I chose Tim to suffer, because when don't I? Also, most of what I wrote about the effects of Fear Toxin is absolute bullshit, loosely based in nolanverse.

It was the last test, the very last. Bruce hated it with Dick, he hated it with Jason, he hated it now with Tim. Still, it was necessary – or that’s what he told himself as he locked him in a room and filled it with fear toxin.

The moment the gas touched him, he thought he knew. Tim would be a Freezer, like Dick, staying still so the bad things wouldn’t see him.

Then the boy’s shoulders dropped. “I know.”

Bruce looked up at that, frowning. Most people had only visual hallucinations when exposed to the compound. Audiovisual would mean one hell of a migraine, a seizure if it went for too long. He reached for the antitoxin.

“I know,” Tim said again, trembling. “I’m sorry.”

Bruce frowned and glanced at his side – where Alfred would be if he at all approved of this test. This wasn’t Freeze, Flight, or Fight.

“I’m sorry. Please don’t – I don’t want to be alone. I know.”

Bruce scowled and purged the toxin from the room, rushing in to deliver the antidote.

Just before he reached him, Tim gasped, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped.

He seized for a minute and forty-five seconds, a few of the tensest seconds of Bruce’s life, before the antitoxin did its job. He remained unconscious for another minute before blinking awake slowly, staring up into Bruce’s face in confusion. “What happened?” he groaned soon after.

Bruce pushed him gently back down. “The last test before you become Robin, I need to know how you react to Scarecrow’s fear toxin.”

Tim immediately brightened. “Does that mean I’m Robin now?”

“No.” Bruce stood, scowling. “You failed. Go home.”

Tim’s face fell. “What? No, I’ll do better.”

“You just had a seizure,” Bruce growled. “If that happens in the field, I can’t keep you safe.”

“The entire job isn’t safe!” Tim yelled. “You can’t take Robin away from me!”

“You were never Robin to begin with!”

Tim’s jaw snapped shut. He took a deep breath. “Please,” he said. “Please don’t. I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

Bruce stalked around him, thinking. “Why do you do that?”

Tim frowned. “Do what?”

“That,” Bruce said. “You did it under the toxin’s influence as well. Jason ran away, Dick froze, I lashed out. You… apologized. Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then think about it.”

Tim sighed and shrugged. “I guess… when you agree with people, they don’t hurt you anymore.”

Bruce stared at him. “You said ‘I don’t want to be alone’. What did you see?”

Tim gnawed on his lip for a long moment before answering. “I saw my parents. Then you and Alfred and Dick. Everybody was telling me I wasn’t good enough, that they were sorry but they needed to move on to better things.”

Bruce blinked in shock before scowling and stalking back over to grab a second dose of antitoxin and a gas mask. He handed them to Tim. “Take these apart. Make them better. Make the antitoxin into a vaccine. Make the mask filters absolute, nothing but oxygen. Then – if you can give yourself that vaccine before patrol – then you can be Robin.”

Tim glowed. “Really?”

Bruce nodded, still scowling. “But you stay away from Scarecrow unless you have no other choice. Am I understood?”

“Yes!” Tim cheered. “Yes, I understand! I’ll make them better, I promise. I’ll work hard.” He ran to the computer and the lab equipment.

“Tim,” Bruce called.

Tim raised an eyebrow, quick fingers already taking apart the mask components.

“It’s late,” Bruce said. “Let Alfred check you over, and then I’ll drive you home. Come back with fresh eyes tomorrow.”

“I can do it,” Tim insisted.

“No-ʺ Bruce cut himself off. “I know you can,” he said instead, “but I want you to take care of yourself, too.”

Tim sighed, but nodded, then he grinned. “I’m going to be a good Robin, Bruce,” he said, “I promise.”

Bruce smirked, leaving the _‘yes, you will be’_ unsaid.


End file.
